'Smugglerius Unveiled' at the Talbot Rice Gallery Edinburgh 2010exhibition text:Central to the exhibition is the cast of a flayed man, or ‘écorché’ known as ‘Smugglerius’. The original cast was made in 1776 under the direction of the anatomist, William Hunter. Hunter was so impressed by the musculature of a man who was hanged at Tyburn that rather than dissect the man, as he had intended, he decided to preserve the body, placing it in a pose based on the classical form of the Dying Gaul. A cast of the man was made and was used for teaching purposes at the Royal Academy in London. Using mock Latin, students of the Royal Academy nicknamed the cast ‘Smugglerius’, likening the flayed man to the grander classical statues seen alongside him, whilst acknowledging his criminal status. The original bronze cast of ‘Smugglerius’ has been lost but two known plaster copies exist: one in the Royal Academy in London (dated 1834) and one in Edinburgh College of Art (dated 1854). Both casts were made by William Pink.For many years, casts of ‘Smugglerius’ have been used in the teaching of anatomy to art students. In the Royal Academy artists such as William Blake would have been amongst the first to draw from the cast. At Edinburgh College of Art (eca) the cast was in a neglected state, hidden in a cupboard, until very recently. Funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund has enabled eca to have restoration work carried out on Smugglerius and this exhibition celebrates and draws to public attention this important cast.The cast first came to the attention of artist Joan Smith when she was a student at eca. Many years later and still fascinated by the fine anatomical detail of the figure and by the folklore attached to it she showed the cast to Dr Jeanne Cannizzo of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, who was also immediately struck by the pathos of the man made into a specimen. Both academics immediately agreed to work together on a research project focussing on ‘Smugglerius’.The collaboration between artist and anthropologist as main researchers is an unusual one and brings together practices and ideas from quite distinct backgrounds. Joan Smith’s background is in Fine Art and she is a practicing artist and lecturer at eca. Dr Jeanne Cannizzo is an ethnographer who teaches photographic anthropology. Both researchers however are interested in contemporary interdisciplinary practice, particularly in relation to peoples’ complex relationship with human remains.Uncovering the identity of the man who became Smugglerius was fundamental to the project and after archival and historical research, a likely candidate emerged: a highway robber named James Langar who was hanged in April 1776. The full story of James Langar and the creation of the cast is described on the Information Boards in the exhibition. The black and white Lambda photographs of the draped cast, using funerary black crepe and white linen, interrogate the physical and cultural meanings of his missing skin and have been made in collaboration with photographer Caroline Douglas. It is hoped that the viewer will be able to contemplate the complexities of the relationship between identity and anonymity, the changing nature of criminal punishment and the importance of anatomy in both science and art.